As of early 1987, when Star Trek: The Next Generation was in preproduction,
two Federation Starfleet vessels named Enterprise had been established:

USS Enterprise NCC-1701: A Constitution-class starship
featured prominently in the original Star Trek television series, animated series,
and the first three Star Trek feature films

USS Enterprise NCC-1701-A: Successor to NCC-1701, a
Constitution-class starship featured at the end of Star Trek IV:
The Voyage Home. Fans would eventually nickname this ship the "Enterprise-A."

Star Trek: The Next Generation presented a new Enterprise:
the Galaxy-class NCC-1701-D, launched about eighty years after the launch of the
Enterprise-A. Fans would eventually nickname this ship the
"Enterprise-D."

The eighty-year historical gap and the "three-step" jump in registry letters from the Enterprise-A
and Enterprise-D suggested that two other starships had also born the name:

USS Enterprise NCC-1701-B, a.k.a. the "Enterprise-B"

USS Enterprise NCC-1701-C, a.k.a. the "Enterprise-C"

Star Trek: The Next Generation senior illustrator Andrew
Probert's design duties included not only the exterior of the Enterprise-D, but
also concepts for many of the ship's interiors. One of these interiors, the ship's conference lounge, featured a large,
curved wall with brass-colored relief sculptures of past and present vessels called Enterprise.
The ships depicted on the display included:

An aircraft carrier

NCC-1701

Enterprise-A

Enterprise-B

Enterprise-C

Enterprise-D

Probert provided the designs which were used as the basis for the relief sculptures. For the Enterprise-B,
he chose the design of the USS Excelsior, which to that point had been featured
in the third and fourth feature films. For the Enterprise-C, Probert provided an
all-new design.

Probert's design for the Enterprise-C started with a
painting that he had made
several weeks earlier. The painting depicted a ship which would have been built between the heyday of the
Excelsior and the time of the Enterprise-D.

Starting with the painting, Probert made a more detailed, profile view of the design, and refined it so that it
represented a more direct evolutionary link between the Enterprise-B (Excelsior)
and the Enterprise-D.

Probert devised the name "Ambassador" to represent ships of this new design.

Aside from the relief sculpture in the conference lounge set, Probert's concept for the
Ambassador-class Enterprise-C never reached television screens.
Probert left Star Trek: The Next Generation following the end of its first season,
and when the Enterprise-C appeared in the third-season episode "Yesterday's
Enterprise," it was reconceived by senior illustrator Rick Sternbach. This version
of the ship, while quite impressive in its own right, bore only a passing resemblance to Probert's concept.

In 2007 Probert began to complete the design of his concept of the Ambassador, in order
to make it available as one of his Concept Kits.
On his Probert Designs web site, he began to share work-in-progress images of the design as it has evolved as a 3D
model, which is being created using FormZ.

For the latest work-in-progress images of the Ambassador, visit Probert Designs'
Ambassador Kit page.
This page shows past images from that page. The images are posted here with the permission
of Andrew Probert, who is the copyright holder.

The evolution of the Ambassador was discussed at length in a
"Trek Tech" thread on TrekBBS.
Many posters speculated on the function of various design elements. On September 18, 2007, this author, who posts as "FalTorPan,"
postulated a history of that ship and its sister, the Enterprise-C. This history is conjecture
only, and is by no means definitive, but this author thought it would be fun to find a place in Star Trek's
rich history for Andrew Probert's intriguing first take on the USS Ambassador and
Enterprise-C. Below are excerpts from the TrekBBS post:

Okay... this ship has fired up my imagination. You have been warned.

Historical Perspective

Let's say that the USS Ambassador NX-10521 was launched in 2323, followed by
the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-C in 2325. The Excelsior
class is still a workhorse of the Federation Starfleet, although its basic design is 40 years old.
The Galaxy class is 20 years from being a glint in anyone's eye, and another
two decades from entering active service. Whatever the fate of the
Enterprise-B, she served the Federation with distinction for 15-25 years.

With respect to the Federation, the Romulans have been incommunicado for about a dozen years. Difficult
negotiations with the Klingons are ongoing. Maybe the Ambassador class was named
in honor of continuing diplomatic efforts with the Klingons.

Probert's Ambassador in Star Trek's Chronology

Now... how do we "retcon" Probert's Ambassador design into established
Trek continuity? We've never seen the actual
USS Ambassador, so it's fair to assume that she always looked like Probert's design.
Since we see a Probert version of the Enterprise-C as the half-model in the
Enterprise-D's observation lounge, we might imagine that the ship had that configuration
at the time of her launch. By 2344, the ship had been overhauled to the Sternbach configuration.

What led to the overhaul? Sometime well after 2325, but years before 2344 -- let's say 2338 -- perhaps the
Enterprise-C was SDF-3ed in the line of duty -- caught
off-guard and rammed by an enemy vessel -- perhaps a Tholian ship. Heavily damaged, the ship was nearly scrapped, but
a new starship class was not yet ready to carry on the name Enterprise, so the ship was
saved, but overhauled to a second, pre-existing variant of the Ambassador class. This
variant, which first saw active service in 2325, is technologically equivalent to the previous variant, but is bulkier,
less costly and perhaps sturdier. Launched in its second configuration, the Enterprise-C
served her new captain, Rachel Garrett, through many adventures and discoveries until the ship's fateful encounter with
four Romulan Warbirds near the Klingon outpost at Narendra III.

Starships of both major types of the Ambassador class continue to serve well into the 2380s and beyond.

Opinions expressed by interviewees are their own, and they do not necessarily
represent the opinions of the authors of this web site. The authors of this web site cannot
always verify and are not responsible for the accuracy of claims made by interviewees.